Today was my first day at the *cough* superior *cough* Monash university. I started the day at 8am after prereading and untangling the moodle maze on the weekend. It was a lot less intense than I expected- though it *is* the first day, and my timetable will be more full-on next week. 8-10am I had some general intro lectures, including some cell stuff (also found out I did the wrong bio course, yayyyy), and then two hours of break hanging out, attending a PSP (formally known as a VESPA which are some really cool peer study groups Monash has) looking around the libraries etc. Most of the PSP sessions were super packed so I wasn't too sold, but will keep going to a few to find one I like.
I went to a "Beyond Google" tutorial which was moreso a lecture, which was kind of boring but okay. I escaped at 1pm and went home for lunch. At this point the day was fairly okay.
Aaaaaand then a histology prac rolled around. I had 1% of an idea of what was going on. There were 150 people vying for places to wash their cheek swab slides, and a worksheet that tested us on stuff on the bio olympiads had a clue about... that will be my study tonight
So far my experience has been somewhat enjoyable; it's been a super big adjustment and there are more cells than a prison, but we'll get there Notes to future med beginners: Feeling nervous and a bit clueless is completely the norm coming into your first day. I thought I was one of a select few, the select few are those who actually know what they're doing, most of us were in the same boat!

Today was the first day of WSU MBBS orientation week so no real lectures. Lots of mini lectures introducing key school of med staff and aspects of the course i.e. PBL, Pop Health, ICM, Professional development etc. We then got a talk from the student medical society which was followed by a bbq lunch and various med society group stalls. We have a cultural day tomorrow and then various other orientations for the rest of the week.

I did however make a few new friends, none of whom are in the same half of the cohort as me for the cultural day tomorrow!

My first official day at UTAS was a CBL class at 9am which mostly consisted of ‘getting to know you’ type activities and then a bit of a chat about this week’s case. Following that I had... nothing! A very casual ‘ease in’ to the Med School process! I literally left uni at 10am and went to work for the rest of the day!

Today, day two, I have four lectures and a tour of the Clinical Library (that I may or may not attend, given I’ve used the Clinical Library a gazillion times already). I also have to work for a few hours this afternoon.

In general though, my CBL group is awesome, and I’m terrified of histology!

In fit of extreme procrastination, I find I'm wondering if/how first year differs across direct entry, undergraduate medical schools. I'd be keen to know whether we are all having a really similar experience, or whether things can vary heaps depending on where we are enrolled.

So... Here is a very brief run-down of my first two weeks!

Lectures: Histology (intro to LM and EM, and epithelial tissue), Cell Biology (cell membrane, cytoskeleton, DNA), and Biochemistry (amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids) mainly, with some Public Health and Clinical Skills lectures mixed in - like, the med student's role in public health, and how to take a patient history, etc).Tutorials: Biochemistry only so farCBL: Mondays and FridaysOnline lectures: HistologyWorkshops: Clinical SkillsLabs: HistologyAssessments: Quizzes (formative at this stage), essay (due next week), CBL presentations (formative at this stage)PASS: Optional

Does this sound familiar? Or are you doing something that sounds a bit different?

Does this sound familiar? Or are you doing something that sounds a bit different?

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My experience so far sounds pretty much the exact same with a few small changes. Namely, instead of histology labs which we have only have one of every 5 weeks, we do an anatomy lab every week which is actually really good! I haven't had any formative quizzes yet either, although I'm pretty sure they start in week 5 and run through to the end of sem.

Biochem has mostly been the basics; i.e cell components, functions of a cell, cell communication etc.

We also have a middle CBL on wednesday (called PBL at JMP) which is basically where our group just comes together and works on the case or learning outcomes for the week without a tutor.

My experience so far sounds pretty much the exact same with a few small changes. Namely, instead of histology labs which we have only have one of every 5 weeks, we do an anatomy lab every week which is actually really good! I haven't had any formative quizzes yet either, although I'm pretty sure they start in week 5 and run through to the end of sem.

Biochem has mostly been the basics; i.e cell components, functions of a cell, cell communication etc.

We also have a middle CBL on wednesday (called PBL at JMP) which is basically where our group just comes together and works on the case or learning outcomes for the week without a tutor.

Click to expand...

I think we start some microbiology wet labs pretty soon, but we don't do any anatomy labs until semester two when we start our MSK block and work with cadavers. Our histology labs have been weekly so far.